Samuel Garth
Sir Samuel Garth FRS (1661 – 18 January 1719) was an English poet and physician. Life Overview Garth was born at Bolam in the county of Durham, and educaated at Cambridge. He settled as a physician in London, where he soon acquired a large practice. He was a zealous Whig, the friend of Addison and, though of different political views, of Pope, and he ended his career as physician to George I, by whom he was knighted. He is remembered as the author of The Dispensary, a satire, which had great popularity in its day, and of Claremont, a descriptive poem. He also edited a translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, to which Addison, Pope, and others contributed. Perhaps, however, the circumstance most honorable to him is his intervention to procure an honorable burial for Dryden, over whose remains he pronounced a eulogy.John William Cousin, "Garth, Sir Samuel," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910, 152. Web, Jan. 13, 2018. Youth and education Garth was the eldest son of William Garth of Bowland Forest, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He was sent to school at Ingleton, at the foot of Ingleborough. In 1676 he entered at Peterhouse, Cambridge, earing a B.A. in 1679, an M.A. in 1684, and an M.D. in 1691, after having in 1687 gone to Leyden to study medicine.Moore, 31. Career He settled in London, where he was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians, 26 June 1693. In 1694 he delivered the Gulstonian lectures. His subject was respiration, but he never published the lectures, though requested to do so. He soon attained practice, was able to hold his own among the wits, and, without becoming an active politician, was known to be a whig. In 1697 he delivered the Harveian oration at the College of Physicians on 17 September, and it was ordered to be printed by the president and censors on the 27 September. It is dedicated to Charles Montague, then first lord of the treasury and president of the Royal Society. Half of the oration is a panegyric on William III. On the last page Garth alludes to a scheme, which had been discussed in the college from 1687, for establishing a dispensary where poor people could obtain advice and prescriptions from the best physicians. While a large majority of the fellows of the college supported this scheme, a minority allied themselves with the apothecaries of the city, who tried to defeat the plan, chiefly by charging exorbitant prices for the drugs prescribed. In 1699 Garth published The Dispensary: A poem, which is a record of the 1st attempt to establish those out-patient rooms now universal in the large towns of England. It was circulated in manuscript, and in a few weeks was printed and sold by John Nutt, near Stationers' Hall. A 2nd and a 3rd edition appeared in the same year, to which were added a dedication to Anthony Henley, an introduction explaining the controversy in the College of Physicians, and copies of commendatory verses. A 4th edition appeared in 1700, a 6th in 1706, a 7th in 1714, and a 10th in 1741. The poem continued to be generally read for 50 years, and some of its phrases are still quoted. In 1700 he obtained the permission of the censor's board (Annals of the College of Physicians, 3 May 1700) for the body of John Dryden to lie in state at the college. He made a Latin oration in praise of the poet, and accompanied his remains to Westminster Abbey. In 1700 he translated the "Life of Otho" in the 5th volume of Dryden's Plutarch, and in 1702 the first philippic in Several Orations of Demosthenes, published by Jacob Tonson. He became a member of the Kit-Cat Club, and wrote the verses inscribed on its toasting glasses to Lady Carlisle, Lady Essex, Lady Hyde, and Lady Wharton (printed at the end of the 10th edition of the Dispensary, London, 1741). He wrote verses easily, and some, preserved in manuscript, were certainly intended to be read only by men far advanced in post-prandial potations (manuscript, in Garth's hand, belonging to Dr. Munk). His handwriting was always hurried and slovenly, but amidst the occupations of a large practice he found time to help the distressed. His notes to Sir Hans Sloane (Sloane MS. in Brit. Mus. 4045) always go straight to the point, as: "Dear Sir Hans,— If you can recommend this miserable slut to be flux'd you'll do an act of charity for, dear sir, your obedt sert Sl Garth."Moore, 32. He married Martha, daughter of Sir Henry Beaufoy, and had one child, a daughter, who married Colonel William Boyle. Lady Garth died on 14 May 1717, and was buried in the parish church of Harrow. Garth continued to write throughout life; in 1711 he wrote a verse dedication of Lucretius, in 1715 Claremont, a poem on Lord Clare's villa; and in 1717 an edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses in English verse, of no great merit. He also wrote in verse a dedication of Ovid's Art of Love to Richard, earl of Burlington, and one to Lady Louisa Lenox with Ovid's Epistles, an epilogue to the tragedy of Cato, a prologue to Tamerlane, and a prologue to the Music Meeting in York Buildings. He lived in Covent Garden and grew wealthy by practice. He died on 18 Jan. 1719, after a brief illness, and was buried beside his wife at Harrow. Pope wrote that Garth was "the best natured of men," and that "his death was very heroical, and yet unaffected enough to have made a saint or philosopher famous." Writing ''The Dispensary'' The Dispensary ridicules the apothecaries and their allies among the fellows. It describes a mock Homeric battle between the physicians and the apothecaries, Harvey being finally summoned from the Elysian fields to prescribe a reform. "Horoscope" represents Francis Bernard, who had been apothecary to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and whose courage during the plague led to his election to the medical staff. His note-books show that the insinuations about his practice were unfounded. His former position led him to take the apothecaries' side. Among his allies Dr. William Gibbons figures as Mirmillo, Dr. George Howe as Querpo, Dr. Edward Tyson as Carus, Dr. William Gould as Umbra, and Sir Richard Blackmore as the Bard. On the physicians' side Dr. Charles Goodall as Stentor is the most redoubtable combatant. The copy of the 3rd edition, which belonged to Garth's friend, Christopher Codrington, is in the library of the College of Physicians of London, and has the names added in his handwriting. Hallam (Literature of Europe, 4th ed. iii. 490) and other critics have suggested that the Dispensary was a copy of Boileau's Lutrin, but Garth owes more to Dryden's Mac Flecknoe, although (as the author admits in his preface) the lines in praise of King William's martial activity are copied from Boileau's verses in praise of Lewis (‘Le Lutrin,’ ii. 133 sq.) Garth added and omitted or altered lines throughout the Dispensary in later editions, but most readers will differ from Pope in the opinion that every change was an improvement. Critical introduction by George Saintsbury Garth is mainly interesting at the present day because he was the first writer who took the couplet, as Dryden had fashioned it, from Dryden’s hands, and displayed it in the form it maintained throughout the eighteenth century. In some respects it may be said that no advance in this peculiar model was ever made on The Dispensary. Its best lines are equal to any of Pope’s in mere fashion, and in it appear clearly enough the inherent defects of the form when once Dryden’s ‘energy divine’ and his cunning admixture of what looked like roughness had been lost or rejected. The monotony, the mannerism, and the other defects, emerge side by side with the polish and smoothness which are its great merits. Except for its versification, which not only long preceded Pope, but also anticipated Addison’s happiest effort by some years, The Dispensary is not now an interesting poem. The dispute on which it is based is long forgotten, its mock heroic plan looks threadbare to our eyes, and the machinery and imagery have lost all the charm that they may at one time have had. But as a versifier Garth must always deserve a place in the story of English literature. Claremont and his other minor works display the same faculty, but at their date it was already common enough. We therefore here give extracts from The Dispensary only, reminding the reader that the poem gives a burlesque account of the opposition made by some physicians and apothecaries to the plan of giving gratuitous advice and medicine to the poor. We may add that our selections form part of the ‘descriptions and episodes’ added by the author in the edition of 1703.from George Saintsbury, "Critical Introduction: Sir Samuel Garth (1661–1719)," The English Poets: Selections with critical introductions (edited by Thomas Humphry Ward). New York & London: Macmillan, 1880-1918. Web, Feb. 19, 2016. Recognition Garth was knighted on the accession of George I, and became physician in ordinary to the king and physician-general to the army. The Chronological Diary, 1714, states that he was knighted with the sword of Marlborough. His portrait, of kit-cat size, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, hangs to the left of the fireplace in the censor's room at the College of Physicians, and gives him a fresh complexion and cheerful expression, in a flowing wig. A drawing by William Hogarth represents him at Button's coffee-house standing by a table at which Pope is sitting. Publications Poetry *''The Dispensary: A poem, in six cantos. London: David Nutt, 1699. **facsimile edition, Delmar, NY: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1975. *''Claremont: Address'd to the Right Honourable the Earl of Clare. London: Jacob Tonson, 1715. *''Poetical Works''. Glasgow: Robert & Andrew Foulis, 1771. *''The Poems of Garth and King'' (with Willliam King). London: J. Nicholls, 1779. *''Poetical Works''. London: C. Cooke (Cooke's edition), 1800. *''The Poems of Garth and Tickell'' (with Thomas Tickell). Chiswick, UK: Press of C. Whittington, 1822. Non-fiction *''A Compleat Key to the Seventh Edition of 'The Dispensary'.'' London: J. Roberts, 1714. Collected editions *''Works''. Dublin: Thomas Ewing, 1769. Translated *Ovid, Metamorphoses, in fifteen books. London: Jacob Tonson, 1717, 1736; New York: Heritage Press, 1961; New York & London: Garland, 1976. Anthologized *''The Works of the Most Celebrated Minor Poets: Never before collected and publish'd together''. (2 volumes), London: F. Cogan, 1749. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Samuel Garth, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 19, 2016. Poems by Samuel Garth #[[From The Dispensary / Samuel Garth|from The Dispensary]] See also * List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Web, Jan. 17, 2017. Notes External links ;Poems *[http://www.bartleby.com/337/592.html Extracts from The Dispensary] *The Dispensary from Google Book Search *The Metamorphoses of Ovid, translated by Samuel Garth. *The works of Sir Samuel Garth from Google Book Search ;About *"Garth, Sir Samuel (1661-1719)" in the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]] * Garth, Samuel Category:1661 births Category:1719 deaths Category:People from County Durham Category:English poets Category:17th-century English medical doctors Category:18th-century English medical doctors Category:Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Knights Bachelor Category:17th-century poets Category:18th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets